MartinC wrote on 08/10/25 at 09:09:15:


I never much liked the look of playing a game with my king on f8, I'd almost prefer the older lines humanly even if for engine they are supposed to be dubious now

Thought the Armenian was busted

Be interesting to know how they have revived it (if they have  )

MartinC - Many of the lines you give in your post are indeed among the ones recommended by Dreev and Basso. The seemingly reckless 10...f6 gets its own chapter, with 11.Qf4 being met by your 11...g5. And 11.Nbxd4 is answered with 11...Nxe5 followed by that endgame line you provided. The authors analyzed this variation to move 26. They introduce a new idea on move 16 that overturns Dreev's earlier evaluation of the line as better for White. As you note, it's rather unbalanced, with White ending up down an exchange but with two pawns and the bishop pair as compensation. 

Nothing is mentioned about 11...Nxd4 in response to 11.Nbxd4. Perhaps the authors consider this too wild! 

Dreev and Basso also give full coverage of 10...Nge7 as an alternative to 10...f6. The knight move is much more common, but the authors describe it as less straightforward and more double-edged. You might be amused to learn that 10...f6 is called the "safer option".

FreeRepublic wrote on 05/24/25 at 11:57:47:

It's interesting to see a new French repertoire with the Armenian so soon after Nicolas Yap considered including the variation in his 1...e6 book and dropped it due to space limitations. In response to my question about publishing his Armenian material separately, he said he had no plans to do so. Now it seems even less likely he'll change his mind since he'd be duplicating the Modern Chess product.

FreeRepublic wrote on 05/24/25 at 11:57:47:

They cover the Tarrasch and Advance variation is a separate data-base:
https://www.modern-chess.com/french-defense-according-to-dreev-tarrasch-advance-...

Their defense to the Tarrasch starts with 3Nd2 c5. After 4exd, I cannot tell how they recapture.

It definitely doesn't look especially fun, but maybe fun is too risky in general these days

Why not 13. ... Nf4: 14.Nd8: Bd8: 15.g3 Ng6 (instead of Tregubov's 13. ... bc6:)?
This looks more or less equal to me.

I vaguely thought we were trying to make it 'solid'  

9 .. Bc7 looks good fun a priori - e5 is gone so a really nice centre.

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I've no idea! But I don't see any strong players doing it.

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If so that's surely no detraction. The Armenian's a complex system; the 7 Nb5 Bc7 lines are different again.

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I got quite interested in this, and it does look reasonably solid to me. What’s White’s best line? The one that’s concerned me most so far is 6 b4 cd 7 Qg4 Kf8 8 Nb5 Bb6 9 Nf3 Nc6 10 Bb2 Nge7 11 Nbd4, when both 11 …Ng6 12 Nc6 bc 13 Bd3 a5 14 0-0 and 11 …h5 12 Qf4 Ng6 13 Nc6 bc 14 Qg3 look a little better for White to me. Maybe the way to go is 11 …Ng6 12 Nc6 Nf4 13 Nd8 Bd8, when Black’s position looks very hard to crack? – this gets the best engine scores (for what that’s worth), and almost all the games I’ve seen reaching this position end in draws.

I presume that after 6 Qg4 Ne7 7 Qg7 Rg8 8 Qh7 cd 9 b4, Black should play 9 …Bc7, since 9 …dc?! 10 ba will transpose to the 6 b4 cd 7 Qg4 Ne7?! 8 ba dc 9 Qg7 Rg8 10 Qh7 Nbc6 11 Nf3! line now considered bad for Black.

Is 5...Aa5 becoming a solid, popular alternative to going down the 7. Dg4 road, similar to 6...Da5 ¿

Smyslov_Fan wrote on 10/20/15 at 12:34:18:


Checked chessbase and it looks like it's been played about 20 times during 2014-15, which is twice as many times as during 2012-13

10 Bf4 in the game in the viewer above I imagine

Bit of a public place to store theory notes I'd have thought!

According to Stockfish6 at depth of 30 10.Bf4 is busted by 10...h5.  Sorry for reviving an old thread but I did start it in the first place, plus I want somewhere to keep my notes for an upcoming thematic Winawer tournament on chess.com that includes an IM (http://www.chess.com/tournament/french-winawer6)

10.Bf4 h5
(10...h5 Stockfish 6 64 -0.98 (depth 31)  11.Qh3 a6 12.Nd6 Bc7 13.Nxc8 Qxc8 14.Be2 Nf6 15.exf6 Bxf4 16.fxg7+ Kxg7 17.O-O e5 18.Qxc8 Rhxc8 19.g3 Bh6 20.Rad1 f6 21.Rfe1 b6 22.Nh4 Ne7 23.Bxh5 Rxc2 24.f4 Rh8 25.Bg4 Rc3 26.Rxd4)

(10...h5 -1.08 (depth 31)  11.Qh4 Qxh4 12.Nxh4 Nge7 13.Be2 a6 14.Nd6 f6 15.exf6 gxf6 16.Bg3 e5 17.f3 Kg7 18.Bd3 Bc7 19.Nxc8 Nxc8 20.Nf5+ Kf7 21.O-O Nd6 22.Nxd6+ Bxd6 23.Rfb1 h4 24.Be1 Ne7 25.b5 a5 26.a4)

(10...h5 -1.26 (depth 30)  11.Qg3 h4 12.Qh3 Nf6 13.Nxh4 Kg8 14.exf6 Qxf6 15.Qg3 d3 16.O-O-O a6 17.Bg5 Qa1+ 18.Kd2 Qb2 19.Bxd3 axb5 20.Rb1 Qe5 21.Bxb5 f6 22.Bxc6 Qd4+ 23.Kc1 fxg5 24.Nf3 Qxf2 25.Qxf2 Bxf2 26.Bb5)

(10...h5 -1.27 (depth 30)  11.Qg5 Qxg5 12.Bxg5 f6 13.exf6 gxf6 14.Bd2 Nh6 15.Bxh6+ Rxh6 16.Nd6 e5 17.Nh4 Ne7 18.Nxc8 Rxc8 19.O-O-O f5 20.Bb5 a6 21.Ba4 e4 22.Kb1 f4 23.Rhf1 Kg7 24.Bd7 Rd8 25.Bh3 Rc6 26.Nf5+)

You're right!

In fact ICCF has quite a good gameviewer, so the easiest thing is to give the links. The two games are available at

http://www.iccf-webchess.com/MakeAMove.aspx?id=435090

and 

http://www.iccf-webchess.com/MakeAMove.aspx?id=434549

There are two correspondence games from the latest ICCF games archive (server month 201309, released today, I think) in just this line (to 14 ... Bxd8):

Lil'-Schott, Chess Planet-DESC ICCF corr 2013 (1/2-1/2, 44),
Enin-Schott, Bestlogic-DESC ICCF corr 2013 (1/2-1/2, 43).

ICCF requires signing up to access their archive, so I think I need to respect that and not upload the games;apologies. But I've found it well worth signing up, and recommend it.

In the major threads I've found on the Armenian variation over the past several years, I've not seen 7...Kf8 mentioned as an alternative to 7...Ne7
in the line of the Armenian that goes 1. e4 e6  2. d4 d5  3. Nc3 Bb4  4. e5 c5  5. a3 Ba5  6. b4 cxd4  7. Qg4.  However I have found a game where
Lputian employed 7...Kf8 (against Firman in 2005) but I think after 8.Nb5 Bb6 9.Nf3 (9. Nxd4? Qc7; 9. Nd6?! Nc6, ...a6 and ...Bc7) Nc6 10.Bb2 his 10...f6 might have been too reckless as his opponent missed 16. 0-0-0 after the sequence 11.Nbxd4 Nxe5 12.Nxe5 fxe5 13.Nxe6+ Bxe6 14.Qxe6 Qf6 15.Qxf6+ Nxf6 instead settling for 16. c4 and the game was eventually drawn.  But instead can't Black get the queens off more safely after 10...Nge7 11.Nbxd4 h5 12.Qf4 Ng6 13.Nxc6 Nxf4 14.Nxd8 Bxd8 and isn't this safer than the game Black gets starting with 7...Ne7